Konstantopoulos named BMES fellow

Konstantinos Konstantopoulos, professor and chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins University’s Whiting School of Engineering has been named a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). Konstantopoulos was one of only nine fellows elected to the Society’s Class of 2012.

BMES states that Konstantopoulos received this honor in recognition of his “seminal bioengineering research contributions involving the discovery and characterization of novel selectin ligands expressed by metastatic tumor cells.” Formal installation of fellows will take place at the BMES annual meeting October 24-27 in Atlanta.

Konstantopoulos is an affiliated faculty member of Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology. He is also a project leader with the Johns Hopkins Physical Sciences-Oncology Center. Together with Martin Pomper, a School of Medicine professor of radiology and co-principal investigator of the Johns Hopkins Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, Konstantopoulos is researching mechanochemical effects on metastasis.

Specifically, his work investigates the effects of fluid mechanical forces at different oxygen tension microenvironments on tumor cell signaling, adhesion and migration. Fluid flow in and around tumor tissue modulates the mechanical microenvironment, including the forces acting on the cell surface and the tethering force on cell-substrate connections. Cells in the interior of a tumor mass experience a lower oxygen tension microenvironment and lower fluid velocities than those at the edges in proximity with a functional blood vessel, and are prompted to produce different biochemical signals. These differential responses affect tumor cell fate that is, whether a cell will live or die, and whether it will be able to detach and migrate to secondary sites in the body.

According to the BMES website, members who demonstrate exceptional achievements and experience in the field of biomedical engineering, as well as a record of membership and participation in the Society, have the opportunity to become fellows. Fellows are selected and conferred by the BMES board of directors through a highly selective process. Nominations for each of these categories may be made by Society members and the board of directors.